No. 4 Front Sights

[Peter Laidler]

Nice to see a mention of the No5 rifle foresight cramp from Brian. Anyone got a No5 grenade launcher. A totally useless piece of work if ever I saw one. Anyone ever heard of anything so daft as firing grenades...... in the jungle?

[ssgross]

Real Armourers used a brass drift and a small ball peen hammer.

I guess I'm authentic too then
I have a No. 4 with that front sight. A thick rubber sheet as vice-jaws squeeze up to support the sight base. There was a dimple on top of mine, being staked tight. One stout tap with a brass drift gets it moving, and only light taps are required after. A light tap with a center punch resets the stake enough to keep it from moving, but I have found that if you take the sight out and wipe on a little bit of good grease, and delicately reset that stake to be tight enough but not too tight, a light tap with a drift at the range gives you adjustment without loosening. I take calipers with me when zeroing, but once done I don't touch it because I prefer to shoot steel targets instead of X's with rifles lacking windage adjustments.

[30Three]

Replacing a front blade; then the brass drift is ideal to get it close. But the proper tool will be much easier to get it zeroed.
When you calculate the required adjustment; you can work out from the tool's thread dimension (threads per inch) what amount of rotation to give the correct drift.
That's better than guesswork.

[ssgross]

But the proper tool will be much easier to get it zeroed.
When you calculate the required adjustment; you can work out from the tool's thread dimension (threads per inch) what amount of rotation to give the correct drift.
That's better than guesswork.

It doesn't have to be guesswork. A caliper goes hand in hand with adjusting sights lacking graduations, or with graduations based on outdated ballistics, regardless of whether a punch is needed to move the sight or not. In the case of the present discussion, I've never noticed it taking so long to get perfect with a punch to warrant half a Benjamin or more on a tool. As I said, if you get the stake 's grip just right in the shop, light taps will wiggle it over a few thous. at a time. A digital caliper is great for getting it perfect. I almost shelled out $250 at auction for a PJ O'hare sight micrometer for 03's or krags, until I realized just how easy and quick a cheap 4in. digital caliper does the same job. Was just at the range with a krag last Friday. 1MOA is 7thous. Very easy to get half moa adjustments perfectly. almost similar, as the rear sight's windage adjustment is so tight (even in the unlocked position) to require tapping with a punch to move it. No hammer, but pushing with a finger requires enough force to make it jump.

[Rick]

Whether you prefer (or have some version of) cramps to push the front sight, or opt for a drift and some version of a dead blow hammer, getting a vernier caliper involved to measure the amount you've moved the sight makes life a lot easier. Assuming you have another surface to use for measurement as well as the sight that you intend to move. That goes for all firearms with drift adjustable front/rear sights.

Life gets even easier if you do the math to calculate how many thou you have to move that sight to get POA=POI.